Survey: Most Metro workers see safety violations, many do nothing about it

Only 10 percent of Metro employees said they had not witnessed a safety breach in the past year, according to an unprecedented safety survey completed in July by more than 9,300 workers. Almost 30 percent said they did not know if they had.

Metro released a summary of the results Thursday, although some of the findings had been announced earlier this month by Richard Sarles, Metro's interim general manager.

According to the summary, the survey found that more than 30 percent of the Metro workers who had observed safety violations in the past year failed to report the problems, because they feared retaliation or doubted that Metro would fix them.

"There is a sense of futility," board member Jim Graham said.

The most common safety problem - identified by nearly 40 percent of respondents - was unsafe working conditions.

"We are required to perform tasks that are unsafe," said one comment from the survey. "There seems to be a total disregard for our well-being from the upper management," it said.

About 34 percent cited fears that reporting would provoke retaliation or negative consequences against them, while smaller numbers said they were afraid to raise safety breaches by senior employees and were reluctant to report people they knew.

Employees concerned about retaliation mostly worried that they would be ostracized by their peers, rather than lose their jobs or be demoted, said Scott Bohannon, general manager of Corporate Executive Board, which performed the survey and provided the summary.

Metro declined to immediately release information beyond what was in the summary, saying that would require a public records request.

Metro has been criticized by federal and state officials, transit experts and union leaders for communications breakdowns and a demoralized workforce that views the leadership as unresponsive.

Survey respondents reported widespread texting and cellphone use by employees operating Metro's trains, buses and other vehicles. Metro instituted a zero-tolerance policy last year; requiring the dismissal of bus and train operators for the first offense.